


Speech is silver, silence gold

by thirdspinsterfromtheleft



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Kiss to keep quiet, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Winterhawk Valentine's Day 2020 Blind Date Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirdspinsterfromtheleft/pseuds/thirdspinsterfromtheleft
Summary: Clint’s a little woozy and Bucky’s a little desperate, but everything is about to be golden.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 7
Kudos: 64
Collections: Winterhawk Valentine's Day 2020 Blind Date Exchange





	Speech is silver, silence gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [USSFriendship](https://archiveofourown.org/users/USSFriendship/gifts).

> Written for the 2020 Valentine's Blind Date Winterhawk Exchange. Happy Valentine’s to USSFriendship!
> 
> Prompts:  
Soulmates  
Kisses to keep quiet

“_Before I put on my makeup ... say a little prayer for you_,” Clint slurs. He is leaning against one of the metal panels that makes up the wall they are crammed into, singing snatches of random songs at intervals with incoherent ramblings.

Bucky is holding the panel next to him in place one-handed, hiding them from the view of the room. It’s not doing anything about sound though, he’s pretty sure, which is going to be a problem as soon as whoever knocked them out mid milk-run and stuck them in the dank lab-type room comes in to check on them. Clint didn’t shake off drugs they’d hit him with as fast as Bucky had his.

Clint takes a breath, then moves on to a sloppy rendition of something Bucky’s heard at the coffee shop Clint’s taken him a few times. His voice has a nice sound to it, although his volume regulation’s shot all to hell since neither of them have seen his aids since Minnesota. It’s velvety, soothing. It brings up vague memories of crooners back Before; of taking a girl to a club and waiting for the perfect moment to wrap an arm around her, let her snuggle into his chest and lean his head on her hair. Bucky wants to shut his eyes and let Clint’s voice envelope him. Clint’s tall enough to make it kind of awkward to snuggle ino Bucky’s chest (Bucky has maybe spent a few minutes considering the logistics when he and Clint ended up on the same couch watching a movie), and his hair is spiky and tacky with dried sweat and blood. 

It seems like it would be nice anyway.

It’s possible the sedatives haven’t cleared his system all the way. He shakes off his reverie and turns his attention to the problem at hand. 

Well, problems.

Things were a step up from fifteen minutes ago, at least. Even high as a kite Clint had been out of his bonds almost before he had managed to peel his eyes all the way open. Bucky’s left arm was hanging stiff and useless, taken out with some kind of EMP before either of them had realized that the mission had gone to shit, but Clint had sprung him too. 

Bucky could hear too much activity in the hallway to risk escaping out the door, but he had been able to pry a metal panel off the wall and gotten them both crammed into the tiny crawlspace. He is now stuck holding the panel in place, since he can’t move without the panel falling, but hopefully anyone who comes in will have every goon in the place looking everywhere else while Clint gets back to fighting condition.

Clint leans against a set of pipes and switches songs. Bucky tries to catch his eye to signal him to be quiet, but he’s got his head tipped back and his eyes closed.

Well, maybe no one will come in until Clint’s back to his normal sharp mission self.

Or, maybe, someone will start rattling a key in the lock and swearing at the stuck knob. _Of course._

Desperate, Bucky stretches one leg far enough to kick at Clint’s ankle without shifting the panel. Clint tips his head and screws his eyes open, but keeps singing.

_Quiet_, Bucky mouths, but Clint shuts his eyes again. “_I want to live, I want to give._”

The key stops sliding and rattling and clicks home. The door hinges creak.

Desperate, Bucky lifts his foot higher and hooks his foot around Clint’s thigh just above his knee. Clint jerks forward, eyes opening halfway. He cuts off mid “_Keep me search-_” and his mouth hangs open, his gorgeous mouth that Bucky’s spent too much time staring at the past few months but would now give a lot to see taped shut until he's thinking straight again. 

His freaking gorgeous mouth that isn’t singing any more, but Bucky can see him lick his lips and furrow his brow, because the idiot is about to protest or ask him why Bucky’s trying to take him out, and Bucky, without thinking, just as Clint rounds his lips to say “Ow!” or “What the hell?” cocks his head forward at the perfect moment to catch Clint’s lips in a kiss. 

_Light_.

Soulmates aren’t rare, exactly. They aren’t common, but everybody knows a handful of soulmate pairs. There’s even a test for it now, some kind of chromosomal marker found in everyone who has a soulbond. It’s in all kinds of unbonded people too; apparently something like one third of the population, people who have a potential soulmate out there but for whatever reason haven't met them yet. 

There’s no need for fancy scientific equipment to identify established soulmates. Once two people have bonded, for the rest of their lives the place where they first touched glows gold whenever they so much as brush pinkie fingers. It ends up on hands a lot, sometimes shoulders or arms or wherever else people bump into each other by accident. Bucky once knew a girl, Charlene, who tripped headlong and planted her forehead into what turned out to be her soulmate’s bare collarbone at a party. It can be fun to come up with scenarios for soulmarks, particularly when someone’s mark shimmers on the shell of their ear, or when one of the pair’s mark shows someplace innocuous but the other’s is nowhere to be seen.

That subtle glow is nothing to the sunlight that spills into Bucky’s mind as he presses his lips to Clint’s. It’s warm and soothing; a little sluggish from the sedatives, but brightening fast. Touch between soulmates shares energy and strength, and thanks to the serum Bucky has plenty to spare. The brush of Clint’s mind is clearing from the fuzziness and and confusion of the drugs. Bucky can feel the instant Clint realizes what’s happened, the shock and disbelief and the utter, fierce joy. Clint shivers and presses closer, and Bucky has to brace himself to keep the panel from shifting because he leans in and deepens the kiss and oh. All the poetry and songs about a soulmate’s kiss are seriously lacking. Each shift and press and stroke of Clint’s lips and tongue against his sends pleasure flicking down his spine, but even the best kiss he’s ever had takes second place to the way he can feel Clint’s pleasure and wonder, Clint’s arousal at the feel of Bucky moving against him.

Under all that is Clint, everything that has drawn Bucky to him since Clint slouched in and stole his coffee the first time Bucky had worked up the nerve to come to the common kitchen without Steve.

Clint hadn’t even realized what he’d done until after he finished Bucky’s cup and was halfway through one he’d poured for himself. He hadn’t even apologized, just told Bucky that Natasha had dibs on maiming him over caffeine and Tony was next in line, so Bucky would have to settle for third or come up with another reason to hate him. 

Bucky couldn’t remember ever feeling more instantly comfortable with another person, no matter how much of his memories came back to him. Being with Clint was Bucky’s favorite part of living in Avengers Tower. Somehow he could spend hours with him without realizing it, even back when he couldn’t stand more than fifteen minutes with Steve before he started feeling itchy and uncomfortable and started looking for reasons to leave. 

On reflection, he maybe should have shaken the guy’s hand at some point. 

He wonders what his own mind feels like. The immediate emotions are probably pretty similar to Clint’s, but Bucky wonders about the overall state of his head. Clint’s mind is so deeply comforting against his, like the feeling of a familiar blanket turned into a scent (and Clint’s mind may be clearing, but they might need to wait a little longer for Bucky to get his head on straight before they fight their way out). Was Clint feeling the same sense of welcome, of home? Or did Hydra leave him with too many sharp broken pieces for a soulmate to find a place to rest?

Even as he thinks it, though, the happiness in Clint’s mind swells and the disbelief is overtaken by possessiveness and determination that make Bucky think that, even if his mind is a little shattered, Clint doesn’t mind so much. 

The angry, confused voices of the people who came to check on their captives only to find them vanished from behind a locked door leave the lab, the door clanging shut behind them.

Bucky opens his eyes to find Clint looking at him, his eyes sharp and focused now, and draws back so they can communicate. Clint chases him at first, but then realizes what he’s doing and lets him go. Bucky misses him instantly even though they’re still so close that he could reach out and touch if his arm worked. He ignores the impulse to burrow his way into Clint's arms and just stay there until the rest of the team shows up to get them out. Sam would never let him hear the end of it if they had to be rescued because they were too busy making out to do it themselves.

_ Ready to get out of here? _ he mouths.

Clint, who looks just as bereft as Bucky feels, lifts a hand as if to sign an affirmative, then pauses.

_Heart of gold, _he signs. His hand cups Bucky’s cheek and he grins, his lips shimmering gold. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Mildly dubious consent content summary: Clint and Bucky have been drugged and kidnapped, and while Clint is lucid enough to free himself and Bucky both out of their restraints he is pretty out of it and is about to blow their hiding place because he keeps rambling and singing. Bucky kisses him to try to get him to be quiet, and since soulmates in this universe share strength when they touch, Clint is clear-headed very quickly, at which point he is very enthusiastic about both the soulbond and the kiss.


End file.
